Residents and soldiers Monday pass by collapsed buildings in Yingxiu in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, which was devastated by the May 12 earthquake. Storms forecast for the region added to concerns that rain would put more pressure on weakened dams and reservoirs.

Storms forecast for the region, meanwhile, added to concerns that rain would put more pressure on weakened dams and reservoirs and cause spillovers from new lakes that have built up behind debris from the earthquake.

The number of deaths from the quake climbed toward an expected final toll of 80,000 or more. The Cabinet said 65,080 people were confirmed killed and that 23,150 people remained missing.

Thousands of people had been evacuated from an area downstream from one of the new lakes that was created by a landslide near Beichuan, a town hit hard by the May 12 tremor.

About 1,800 soldiers, each carrying 22 pounds of explosives, clambered up mountain paths to reach the new lake — already named Tangjiashan — with plans to blast through the debris and drain the water, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The troops didn’t arrive until late Monday, and the blasting was not expected until sometime today at the earliest.

With better weather allowing helicopter flights, heavy equipment also was delivered to the area to help remove debris, state media reported.

Tangjiashan lake is one of dozens caused when the magnitude-7.9 quake sent millions of tons of earth and rock tumbling into some of the region’s narrow valleys. Rising waters already have swallowed some villages.

“The water was covering the road, and two days later, I could not see the roof of my house anymore,” said Liu Zhongfu, standing on a hillside looking down at another of the new lakes, which submerged the town of Shuangdian.

The owners of Boulder’s Sterling University Peaks apartments, who this summer were cited for illegally subdividing 92 bedrooms in the complex, have reached an agreement to settle the case for $410,000, the city announced Thursday.